| Erap: Hostage rescue shows I'll survive
By Radzinti Oledan, Judy Merquita, Keith
Bacongco, Esther Amores-Roque and Carmelito Francisco, Mindanao News Bureau
DAVAO
CITY— President Estrada greeted three Malaysians rescued from Muslim rebel
kidnappers, and said their freedom was “a message from above” for his political
enemies.
The beleaguered
Chief Executive said the Army’s retrieval of the hostages shows he will not be
defeated.
“Our recovery
of all but two of the hostages should drive home the message to our foes that they have
failed to stop my administration on its track,” Mr. Estrada said yesterday. “With
the wholehearted support of our people, I know they will never succeed.”
The rescue of the
Malaysians on Wednesday leaves the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas holding an American, Jeffrey
Edward Schilling, and a Filipino, Roland Ulla, with 14 other hostages freed since the
government began a crackdown on the rebels six weeks ago.
Erap
“Seventeen
down, two more to go,” Mr. Estrada said. “I assure you there will be no letdown
in the military’s efforts to secure the remaining hostages.”
The Chief
Executive branded the hostage-takers “plain cowards,” then quickly turned his
comments to the mass movement by Filipinos seeking to remove him from office, calling it
“despicable efforts by our enemies to derail our country’s growth and
prosperity.”
Malaysian
Ambassador Manzoor Hussein Arshad joined Mr. Estrada in a news conference here and thanked
Filipinos for rescuing his countrymen who were seized on Malaysian soil and taken to Jolo.
Arshad said the
crisis had brought the neighboring Southeast Asian nations closer together in fighting
international crime—which he called one positive development of a bad situation.
“There’s
no doubt that we are wiser now, and while there’s no guarantee that such incidents
will not be repeated, the chances of a repeat performance are slim,” Arshad said.
Under fire
Mr. Estrada took
potshots at some “top country leaders” for what he claimed were their moves to
destabilize the economy at his expense. He did not identify these detractors during a
brief press conference at the Davao International Airport.
In Kidapawan City,
the President said he will never resign from office unless proven guilty, and forecast he
would finish his term, which ends in June 2004.
“If I am
proven liar, I am ready to resign. I did not accept even a single centavo from
jueteng,” he stressed.
He complained that
critics were taking unfair advantage by harping on other national problems like the rising
prices of petroleum products, the peace and order situation and the devaluation of the
peso.
“They
(critics) have done this before, but they failed,” the President addressed the crowd
that gathered at the North Cotabato gymnasium.
Reacting to a
recent survey showing mass disenchantment of corruption in the executive department, the
Chief Executive threw blame on the administration of former president Fidel V. Ramos,
citing the Clark Expo scandal as example.
Speaking before an
estimated 5,000 supporters at the Hizon Elementary School in Sasa, this city, the
President announced a P1.7-billion development budget for Mindanao.
His administration
is the first to give Mindanao a bigger budget than Visayas and Luzon, he claimed.
Mr. Estrada urged
government officials and citizens to abandon partisan politics and concentrate on
development tasks.
“Politics
should take a backseat amid the more pressing issues and concerns such as economic
recovery,” he said.
With AP
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